Jakarta Globe, Heru Andriyanto, June 23, 2010
A garbage collector smoking a cigarette while working at the Bantar Gebang landfill, Bekasi. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)
Taipei. Disposing of garbage hardly sounds like a great time to socialize with friends and neighbors, but a novel approach to waste management in the bustling Taiwanese capital, Taipei, is proving otherwise.
The Taipei metropolitan area, home to 6.7 million people, enforces a “No waste drop” policy that bans residents from littering and encourages them to bring out their garbage to dump trucks.
The mandatory trash policy got off to a slow start, but now most residents, from company executives to market traders to housewives and their Indonesian maids, can be seen out on the curb at night, chatting while waiting for the trucks to come by.
“After coming home from work and having dinner, I get to bring the trash out,” said Taipei native Tommy Lee, who currently works in Jakarta. “I really enjoy the precious few minutes of talking with my neighbors.
“I notice that migrant workers from the Philippines and Indonesia also use the occasion to meet with their friends,” he adds. “Like me, they look a little bit sad when the 9 p.m. truck is gone and the conversations have to end.”
Just a decade ago, Taipei struggled with the problem of littering. In July 2000, the city authorities introduced the “pay as you throw” policy in which residents were charged based on the amount of waste for collection.
They are now required to use only specially designated garbage bags.
Initially, most residents refused to buy these bags, instead using the free plastic bags they accumulated from shopping trips.
Police officers were then assigned to each dump truck to ensure they picked up only the designated trash bags, and residents who did not comply were fined on the spot.
Another problem was that most residents would just leave their garbage bags out on the curb or at pick-up points before leaving for work in the morning.
When the garbage trucks came by at night, there were heaps of reeking trash piled up along the streets.
That led authorities to implement a policy that no trash was allowed to touch the ground.
Residents were thus obliged to personally hand over their trash bags to the truck operators or dispose of their recyclable items in special bins provided by the city.
Sorting out recyclables from regular trash also saves residents money because the volume of the waste collected by the trucks goes down accordingly.
Meanwhile, bulky items such as furniture or tires are collected by different trucks on an appointment basis.
The Taipei authorities continue to tweak the program. Now, kitchen waste is to be collected separately to be used as pig feed or compost.
As for the rest of the garbage, it heads to the massive Beitou incinerator. The facility, sprawled over 10.6 hectares, can process 1,800 tons of waste a day. And it’s hardly a dump.
It has a swimming pool, children’s playground, employees’ dormitory and administration offices.
The main building, which houses the incinerator, is arguable the only one of its kind to boast a revolving restaurant and space observatory near the top of its 150-meter-high stack.
Around 95 percent of the garbage collected from Taipei residents is incinerated, while the rest ends up in a landfill.
Even here, little goes to waste. The incinerator burns the garbage at 1,050 degrees Celsius, and the bottom ash is processed to make paving blocks or bricks.
The results of this decade-long waste-management revolution are evident across the city, which is almost spotlessly free from litter, even in the busy public markets.
The city takes its garbage very seriously. For instance, the authorities have imposed restrictions on plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other retail outlets, in a bid to limit the amount of non-recyclable waste.
By contrast, Jakarta, home to 13 million people by day, is still struggling to find enough space to dispose of the 6,500 tons of garbage produced each day.
Eko Bharuna, the head of the city’s waste-disposal office, says the authorities may be forced to build a new landfill in neighboring Tangerang to accommodate the ever-increasing waste output that can no longer be handled by the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi.
The city also plans to set up three other landfills in the North Jakarta neighborhoods of Cakung, Sunter and Marunda as part of its 20-year waste-management plan.
However, this ostensibly long-term vision will only provide a short-term solution unless the problem of littering is properly addressed and legislation enacted to fix it.
Setting up new dumps will also invariably incite protests from local residents.
In November 2004, protests in the Bogor area over the planned creation of a landfill there turned violent, and ended with the police shooting and wounding five villagers.
Negotiations for the Tangerang facility began early last year, but the authorities there have stopped short of approving the plan because of protests from residents.
Taipei’s success story suggests it will take more than just throwing money at the problem to fix it.
Effective waste management calls for innovative and far-reaching ideas, public participation, changes in personal habits to stop littering, strong political commitment from both the municipal authorities and the City Council and even coercive legislation.
Jakarta may have the money, but is woefully lacking in everything else.
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